Bibliophemera

Here is an elaborately illustrated Victorian trade card for bookseller Samuel J.W. Reynolds (or S.J.W. Reynolds) of Cooperstown, New York. I stumbled across it in my collection today and remembered blogging about it years ago—15 as it turns out. I thought I’d lost it! It’s one of my favorite items and deserves an upgrade in both the writing and imaging departments. I don’t recall having a scanner at the time and did the best I could with a cheap digital camera for the images. The die-cut card conveys an image, rich in colorful, busy detail, appropriately in the shape of a book. The binding of that book provides the business vitals, while the cover invokes an imaginative scene of mischievous elves at play while the owner's away. Actually, he's just returned and caught them in the act. See him in the upper-right corner of the card peering in from the doorway behind a slightly opened door. There is actually a method to the madness of the chaotic scene as it provides additional a...

Here is a Victorian trade card that promotes both the offerings of a publisher and bookseller that stocks those products for his customers. The colorful lithograph that graces the front of the card promotes D. Lothrop & Co.'s Wide Awake series with a subscription rate discount, as well as the single issue price. Similar information is offered at the bottom of the card for another children's periodical, Baby-Land .  The publisher's popular illustrated books and a free bookcase also get a mention squeezed in at the bottom of the card, with details on the reverse side. Those details on the reverse side follow the stamp of a local bookseller who has those items in stock or can get them for you from the publisher. The bookseller who issued this card to store patrons was D.F. Wallace of Cortland, New York, about 30 miles south of Syracuse. More on him and Cortland history in the 1870s to 1880s here . On Christmas Eve, 2011, I blogged about another D. Lothrop...

Carrying on with the theme of the previous post (die-cut trade cards for booksellers), here is a trade card for an Allentown, Pennsylvania (nod to Antiquarian Holographica ) bookseller--Shafer's New Bible House, which sold Bibles, of course, but also a wide variety of books, as well as albums and stationery. The cup-and-saucer shape of this trade card is an interesting choice for a bookseller. I wonder why not a book, as used quite effectively by a bookseller featured in the previous post about a Cooperstown bookseller ? It may have had some metaphorical meaning to the shop owner or it may have just been eye-catching and readily available, or even one of a variety of cards used by the proprietor. Or maybe it was just his cup of tea or that of certain customers for whom he reserved this special card. Then again, most Victorian-era trade cards I've seen for booksellers and other businesses sport images that have nothing to do with the businesses they represent. Mr...

Revisiting Cooperstown (see Delos M. Wood, Cooperstown Bookseller ), here is an elaborately designed trade card for another Victorian-era, Cooperstown bookseller: S.J.W. Reynolds. The die-cut card conveys an image, rich in colorful, busy detail, appropriately in the shape of a book. The binding provides the business vitals, while the cover invokes an imaginative scene of mischievous elves at play while the owner's away (actually, he's just returned and caught them in the act). This scene also provides more opportunity for advertising some of the shop's products for sale--writing instruments, ink, periodicals, and assorted categories of books. I can date this to the 1880s or 1890s. I have found copies of Phinney's Calendar, or Western Almanac, 1885-1886, that show Reynolds as the publisher. So add that to this bookseller's resume. Also in 1890, a sales ad in a volume of Publisher's Weekly for Reynolds' bound collection of a full run of ...

I usually write about a piece I've researched and can provide some history on, but this one is a stumper. Maybe someone out there will see this and have some information about it. This is an old trade card for a San Francisco bookseller and stationer, E.C. Thatcher and his business with the colorful name, Eureka Bazaar.   Looks like he sold a hodge-podge of items, not just books and stationery. With the shop name, proprietor's name, the address on Mission Street, you'd think I could turn up something on the Internet. Actually, I did get the following, which answers nothing and only creates more questions An 1888-89 Northern Pacific Coast Directory has this entry for Eureka Bazar (sic) at a different address in San Francisco (I presume, as the street address exists there today) with a different owner, a woman referred to as Mrs. Douglas: DOUGLAS MRS E A proprietress Eureka Bazar 1841 Fillmore res same Using all this information has produced not one iota...

Here's a pair of Victorian trade cards that offer a bit of bookselling and printing history, with an unintended vocabulary lesson thrown in. As usual, these cards offer images that are colorful and attractive (children playing games in this case), but have nothing to do with the business they represent. Oftentimes, the bookseller would have his business particulars printed on the reverse side. With these cards, that information is printed on the illustrated side in only three lines. The reverse side is blank. Both cards were printed by Eugene Ketterlinus in Philadelphia (fine print in lower-right corner), whose building, coincidentally, was demolished in the 1960s for the U.S. Mint building (so... from print to mint). On that same site in the 1850s, a bookseller had plied his trade. Ketterlinus demolished that building and built a new structure in the 1850s, ensuring a long business history at that location from books to printing (from trade cards to money). William Patton, the boo...

Several weeks ago, there was a discussion introduced on the Ephemera Network about business cards. Frank DeFreitas, whose holography specialty of ephemera is found at Antiquarian Holographica , invited participants to join the group Business, Trade & Calling Cards and to share examples. I submitted the card below from Thomas W. Durston, Bookseller, of Syracuse, New York. I have found references to Durston's book shop in the 1880s, so the card dates from about that time to possibly the turn-of-the-century. This is a die-cut piece of ephemera, which means a press was used with a specialized cutting tool (die) to cut and create the fan shape from the paper used for the card. I have two more of these from the same bookseller, only in different colors: The ubiquitous bookseller symbol, the owl, is present in the design, but this one is holding or playing what looks like a mandolin. I'm not sure what that represents, nor am I sure about the fishing frog's role in represen...